time out

*sigh* It is time to institute official "time outs" for The Boy. I never had to do this with The Babe. Not that she is perfect, but when she did misbehave, a stern "no!" would make her stop. But, The Boy is my little challenge. While he is a better eater and a better sleeper than his sister ever was, he is all "boy" in terms of fearlessness, roughness of play, obedience, etc.

The Boy is a hitter. He hits me. He hits The Babe. He hits the dog, the cat, the sofa, his dad.... He hits most often when he is not getting his way. He doesn't just randomly hit you, there is always a reason, but it is hitting just the same. It's to the point now that when I sternly tell him "no hitting", he just hits me harder. He recently hit me so hard that my glasses fell off my face.

So, you can see, it is time to institute official "time outs" for The Boy.

He really does not like the time out. I expect him to sit on the sofa in the boring old living room for all of two minutes, and you would think the world is ending. He cries, he screams, he whimpers and pouts. I feel terrible... but, ummmm.... no hitting!

When his two minutes are up, he gets a calm talk from me about why hitting is bad, and how every time he hits he will get one warning, and then it will be off to the sofa if it happens again. We are on day two of the time outs. I sure hope it works.